Heavenly Sword Demo Out 66
Thursday saw the release of the Heavenly Sword demo on the PlayStation network. Kotaku has impressions from the play experience and GamesRadar offers up some helpful tips to make the most of the short playtime. From Kotaku's rundown: 'Seven minutes, and it ends just like that. No big boss fight to try out, no giant plot revelation, no finding an ancient artifact. Just, "here comes more enemies, see you in two months!" You know that feeling you get when you're about to sneeze and then can't? Exactly the feeling I got here. As for aesthetics, the graphics were solid but the framerate was erratic at times. Sound was excellent no matter which language option I chose in order to stretch out my playtime a little by pretending I was a different guy from another country. By far the best aspect of the whole demo for me, the music was completely top notch. Very atmospheric and brilliantly arranged. ' Back at Kotaku, Brian Crecente received a longer version of the demo than the one publicly available, and is now playing through it live over the internet.
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you obviously fail at trolling too.
No - he actually got you!
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Ninja Gaiden Sigma - A massively upgraded 1080p remake of the classic game
Really? I love the ads they've been running for it. It looks like a first-gen PS2 game, at least in the TV ads. Brilliant marketing campaign, that - provide conclusive proof that if you don't have a $3000 HDTV, you shouldn't bother with the game.
And full backwards compatibility with the largest and greatest console library of games ever
NOT ANY MORE! Way to go, Sony! Not even with the old ones, if you're planning on using that $3000 HDTV!
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Amazing Game (Score:1, Interesting)
This was a good thread to learn about the demo:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=17430 7 [neogaf.com]
The next few months are going to be absolutely insane for the PS3 with Lair, then Warhawk, Ratchet and Clank, Little Big Planet, Heavenly Sword just for the major first party tit
Short Demo. (Score:1)
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But seriously... I have gotten the overall impression of the game from the demo, in spite of its length, and it's a MUST-BUY. The cutscene at the beginning is the best lip-sync job I've seen in a video game in a LONG time.... well, ever, I think.
Yeah! This is not "Goddess of War".... and even if it was, it ROCKS...
Great demo (Score:2)
Rob
Demo is AMAZING (Score:1, Insightful)
Beautiful graphics, but I have some complaints... (Score:3, Informative)
The game feels very much like a ninja version of God of War, as they share many of the same elements: context sensitive mini games, vicious combat, finishing moves, swarming enemies and stunning locations. I wasn't all that excited for this game before the demo, but I am now. A definite release day purchase.
Heavenly Sword Irks me (Score:5, Interesting)
I know this is an ongoing trend... Oni, Lara Croft, Alyx Vance, Chick from Sin Episodes, Chick from No One lives forever, Every DoA Chick and a dozen other games with female characters (Even Samus has fallen into this pit). They're all petite and totally badass. They're blatantly one dimensional... even Alyx from Half Life is pretty shallow and a generic hot chick. Heavenly Sword just gets to me, it seems like the worst of the bunch... "Let's take God of War and make it star a red haired bombshell who will kill you and fuck you before you hit the floor." How can we demand more realistic female characters in video games (male too... but that's for a different rant)? Are we doomed to play games with shallow female leads because that's what we "want"?
For the record, while writing this rant, I was contemplating genuine female leads. Many were from LucasArts adventure games (The Dig, Fate of Atlantis) and other adventure games as well. I also thought of the original Alone in the Dark... I was around 10/11 when it was released and I started thinking about what a unique character Emily Hartwood was... just the niece of a suicidal lunatic trying to find out what happened, she's obviously feminine but not sexualized .
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developer laziness (Score:2)
Even this is becoming less of a stereotype and more of a cliché. The one-on-one fighting game has suffered from this almost from day one: each game needs a female character, and oh, I know, let's make her physically weak but fast and nimble.
W
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But the real-life differnce between the genders is clearly not as big as portrayed in games. I'm pretty big at 187 cm and around 80 kg, but even I know a few females who would probably put up a good fight against me on strength alone. In games like Street Fighter though, females are a lot weaker and faster than most males...
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Re:Heavenly Sword Irks me (Score:4, Insightful)
That game desperately needs a sequel.
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I have never played NOLF, but it looked interesting. I've always wanted to check it out.
I thought the first game was brilliant. The second one seemed to be hitting all the same notes but failed to be brilliant. I'd compare both games to Max Payne. Payne 1 was cheesy over-the-top film noir brilliance with the sequel being more meh.
What I thought made NOLF stand out against all the other shooters is how seriously the development team took the idea of telling a story. This isn't a matter of a cheesy intro and closing for a mission, everything flowed beautifully. The voice acting quality was exce
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And yes, the game needs a sequel.
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Unfortunately sex sells. I guess the real question is, Who is behind this constant juvenile behaviour? Is it the publishers? The developers (Design? Art?
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I doubt we will ever see genuine female leads in games which main purpose is to slash through hordes
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I'm male, I'm driven by million of years of evolution which included horniness as a good selection behaviour. Or, if you prefer the stupid argument, that's the way God made me. Sue me.
They should have an option re
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know this is an ongoing trend... Oni, Lara Croft, Alyx Vance, Chick from Sin Episodes, Chick from No One lives forever, Every DoA Chick and a dozen other games with female characters (Even Samus has fallen into this pit). They're all petite and totally badass. They're blatantly one dimensional... even Alyx from Half Life is pretty shallow and a generic hot chick. Heavenly Sword just gets to me, it seems like the worst of the bunch... "Let's take God of War and make it star a red haired bombshell who will kill you and fuck you before you hit the floor." How can we demand more realistic female characters in video games (male too... but that's for a different rant)? Are we doomed to play games with shallow female leads because that's what we "want"?
I would agree with most of that rant except for No One Lives Forever. For starters, Archer is based off the Bond woman stereotype so of course she has to be in a catsuit. However, I thought the character was carried off with respect and intelligence. Sure, she could take more damage than a normal person but that's standard videogame logic. She didn't use brute strength in her fights, it was guns and stealth.
But it's not just the women who get the short end of the stick here. All across visual media, there'
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It has license to do things like that.
More serious female characters will (should) come with more serious games.
Off top of my head, Rosa from Condemned strikes me as a non-typical and interesting female character
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The two best examples IMO are the The Long
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"They're all petite and totally badass. They're blatantly one dimensional..."
Cry me a river. You realize the objective of this game amounts to: swing sword, kill monsters, watch pretty pictures on screen, don't you?
Were you expecting The Adventures of Linda the Large-Boned Soccer Mom? Or maybe Heavenly Sword: Intellectual Adventures in Feminism?
If you don't like it, don't play it.
I'm going to let you in on a little
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Besides, the male characters in JRPG's are generally so bishy and androgynous, that the swords look just out of place with them too.
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I don't think that the game would have been more realistic had she weighed more and put on more armor.
All five minutes of this demo were great. Loved the epic feel of the cinematography and choreography. Loved it.
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Eternal Darkness - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_Darkness:_San ity's_Requiem [wikipedia.org]
Indigo Prophecy - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit_(video_gam e) [wikipedia.org]
Still Life - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Still_Life_(video_gam e) [wikipedia.org]
Dreamfall - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamfall [wikipedia.org]
Beyond Good & Evil, Trace Memory... (Score:2)
I think Beyond Good & Evil is another good example of a strong female lead that is not oversexed. And probably Trace Memory [wikipedia.org]. And I think Eternal Darkness had some strong female characters, but I can't really remember too much. Zelda is often pretty well-developed and multi-layered. You're right, these are mostly adve
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_refrigerato
Enjoy. Just thought I'd fuel the flames of your irkdom a bit more.
HS impressions (Score:2)
I think the full game
And the Judge thought.... (Score:2)
Did the judge think so too? He must have had a good lawyer!
It's short...red light. (Score:2, Troll)
Most people put it at 5 minutes time range. If anything that's a red light. Now length of a demo has no bearing on the worth of the demo but the fact that you have a game of X length, and the most you're willing to show is 5 minutes should set off the warnings of anyone but the most die hard fans. What aren't they showing? The fact that 90 percent of the ba
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But this... The whole 'hit the button during the action scene' thing felt sloppy. In GoW, when you hit the button properly, you saw the effect immediately. This leaves you to wonder if it worked or not for a while, first. A failure to hit the button looked like success at first to me as well.
And then the fight... I could hardly tell what was going on. The camera was so far back that I couldn'
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Is there a name for this yet? How about "cut scene wackamole"
You're right it was very sloppy. There was no challenge to it.
If you let her stand still she'll block automatically. Watch for a guy to go blue and hit [triangle] to counter. Then pick other buttons to continue as a combo. Starting combos with [square] (which doesn't counter) is more problematic, you'll need to make sure no else is within range, or that they dude you're going after isn't too close.